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According to a report by the Korea United News Agency, the Gwangju Police Agency's Cyber Crime Investigation Team will arrest and transfer three suspects led by A (in their 60s), who are suspected of establishing offices in Seoul, Gwangju in South Jeolla Province, and Gunsan in North Jeolla Province since November 2024. They allegedly deceived over 100 elderly individuals aged 70 to 80 into investing in virtual assets with false promises such as "guaranteed principal" and "potential profits of hundreds of billions of Korean won," accumulating approximately 500 million Korean won in fraud.The police stated that there are likely still unreported victims and are continuing to expand the investigation, reminding the public to remain vigilant against investment offers that promise guaranteed principal and high returns.

The Korea Communications Standards Commission (KCSC) held a meeting of the Communications Review Subcommittee and determined that the overseas prediction market platform Polymarket provided illegal betting, deciding to implement access blocking measures against it. The committee judged that Polymarket's business model is based on the outcomes of events that users cannot control, such as politics, sports, elections, and weather, adopting a "winner takes all" profit and loss structure that fosters speculative psychology; the platform operator is responsible for market establishment, trading rule setting, and overall operational management, providing a virtual asset acceptance and settlement system, which effectively creates an environment for raising and delivering user funds, and profits by charging transaction fees through share trading, violating South Korea's Criminal Law and the National Sports Promotion Act.Polymarket argued that the platform operates based on non-custodial peer-to-peer trading and smart contracts, and does not directly raise funds, manage funds, or issue sports promotion voting rights. However, the committee responded that one cannot evade the applicability of domestic laws in South Korea based on technical characteristics such as whether Korean language services are provided, decentralized technology, or centralized trading interfaces. Given that the platform has actually provided illegal betting to South Korean users, access blocking is unavoidable to protect domestic users.

According to The Block, South Korea's two major cryptocurrency exchanges, Upbit and Bithumb, released their financial reports for the first half of 2026. Affected by the sluggish cryptocurrency market, both exchanges experienced a significant decline in revenue and profit.Upbit's parent company, Dunamu, reported a revenue of 408.1 billion won (approximately 289 million USD) in the first half of the year, a year-on-year decrease of 49.1%; operating profit was 111.5 billion won, a year-on-year decrease of 79.7%; and net profit was 108.4 billion won, a year-on-year decrease of 74.1%. Bithumb reported a revenue of 168.8 billion won in the first half of the year, a year-on-year decrease of 48.7%; operating profit was 14.9 billion won, a year-on-year decrease of 83.4%, and a net loss of 108.7 billion won, compared to a net profit of 55 billion won in the same period last year.During the reporting period, Bitcoin fell from about 90,000 USD to 60,000 USD, and Ethereum dropped from 3,000 USD to about 1,600 USD. The strong rise in the semiconductor sector of the domestic stock market in South Korea attracted a large amount of capital out of the cryptocurrency market. The total trading volume of the five licensed exchanges in the second quarter decreased by 49.5% year-on-year to 146.43 billion USD.Despite the pressure on performance, both exchanges are still advancing capital operations: Dunamu is conducting a share swap with Naver Financial and plans to go public on NASDAQ within five years after completion; Bithumb plans to improve its internal control system in 2026 and submit a pre-listing application in 2027, aiming to complete its IPO in 2028.

Ripple officially announced that Jeonbuk Bank has become the first local bank in South Korea to deploy Ripple Payments, providing its corporate clients with near real-time, 24/7 cross-border settlement services to replace the time-consuming SWIFT transfers. This collaboration will help the bank enhance its cross-border payment efficiency and service capabilities.This is Ripple's third partnership in South Korea this year, having previously collaborated with Kyobo Life Insurance and Kbank on custody, wallet infrastructure, and payment services. Several leading financial institutions in South Korea are continuing to advance cooperation with Ripple in the fields of payments and related infrastructure.

The ULTRA Web3 Festival successfully concluded on July 30-31 at The Arch Galeries in Kuala Lumpur. As the core site of the "Global Series Conference Integrating Web3, Traditional Finance, and Artificial Intelligence," this two-day summit brought together international builders, business leaders, and institutional investors to build a bridge between decentralized technology and traditional markets.The success of the Kuala Lumpur event was attributed to the support of a wide range of visionary alliances and industry-leading sponsors, including Pudgy Penguins, Orca, DDNEXUS, Alpha Insight, AI Nova, Decentralized Intelligence, SuperFlow, CloudBank, Morpheus, Razer, ChainUp, DYLI, Saat Dimensi, Oper8 Capital, Lavo Protocol, WageFlow, Echobit Exchange, LifyX Exchange, X18, and Starshine. Additionally, the event further expanded its influence through strategic collaboration with key ecosystem partners such as Access Blockchain Association, CCACC, Emerge Group, Global Impact Fintech, Web3Labs, and ADI Foundation.It is reported that the ULTRA Web3 Festival is set to enter the South Korean market, partnering with Web3Labs as the official global business partner to appear at the second Global Web3 Developers Conference (GWDC 2026 Korea). The conference is scheduled to take place on September 29-30 at the aT Center in Seoul, where both parties will promote cross-border collaboration, technology exchange, and drive international business growth in the Asia-Pacific region.

According to CoinDesk, a South Korean court sentenced a cryptocurrency platform operator to 15 years in prison this week, involving an amount of approximately 50 million USD. This ruling is considered one of the longest sentences handed down in South Korea to date for cryptocurrency fraud.Reports indicate that this case occurred against the backdrop of South Korea strengthening its scrutiny of outbound fund transfers and related platforms like Binance implementing restrictive measures, reflecting the local regulatory authorities' ongoing tightening of efforts to combat cryptocurrency fraud and capital outflows.

According to Gate market data, the South Korean KOSPI index rose 11.5% this week, ending a seven-week decline trend.

According to Digital Asset, Park Soo-young, a member of the Korean National Power Party, criticized the government's plan to tax virtual asset gains, stating that it is "a threat of a tax bomb if one does not invest in the domestic stock market," and demanded an immediate withdrawal.Member Park Soo-young stated on her YouTube channel: "I hope this punitive tax plan that puts 13 million digital asset users in danger can be withdrawn immediately." She added, "This does not mean that people will invest in domestic stocks; on the contrary, it will only accelerate the outflow of national wealth." She cited that approximately 124 trillion won flowed into overseas digital asset exchanges from January to September last year.

The Korea Investment Corporation (KIC) established a position in Circle stocks in the second quarter, holding 65,443 shares valued at approximately $4.09 million.In addition, during the same period, it reduced its holdings in Strategy, Coinbase, and Riot Platforms, while increasing its holdings in Block and Robinhood stocks.

According to Gate market data, the Nikkei 225 index closed up 784.53 points on August 13, an increase of 1.16%, reporting at 68,308.59 points.The South Korean KOSPI index also closed up 210.97 points on the same day, an increase of 3.21%, reporting at 6,790.01 points, with SK Hynix rising 5.9% and Samsung Electronics rising 3.9%.

According to Digital Asset, a South Korean court has made a first-instance ruling regarding Delio CEO Jeong Sang-ho involved in a cryptocurrency fraud case amounting to approximately 250 billion won (about 180 million USD), sentencing him to 15 years in prison.The 11th Criminal Division of the Southern District Court of Seoul stated that Jeong's criminal conduct was serious, and he continued to shift responsibility to other companies while attempting to evade accountability. This ruling comes about three years and two months after Delio suspended withdrawals in June 2023.

According to News1, South Korea will expand the registration review scope of Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASP) to include major shareholders starting from August 20. If there are changes to the major shareholders or the company's legal compliance framework, operators must notify the financial authorities 30 days in advance.The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) announced the revised registration manual at a briefing held in Seoul for virtual asset service providers and potential operators. The review targets not only the largest shareholders and major shareholders holding more than 10% of shares but also shareholders with special connections to the largest shareholders. If the largest shareholder is a legal entity, the largest shareholder of that entity and its representatives may also be included in the review scope.

According to The Block citing News1, Korea's Mirae Asset Group is injecting about 50 billion won (approximately 36 million USD) into the local cryptocurrency exchange Korbit after acquiring it in July.The operating company of Korbit has recently been renamed DigitalX.

After the overseas CEX Apps like Bybit and OKX were removed from the local Google Play in South Korea, the country is further tightening the process of transferring crypto assets to overseas platforms. According to the latest amendment to the Enforcement Decree of the Specific Financial Information Act, South Korean trading platforms will need to determine whether to allow transfers based on the risk level of the overseas platforms; when transferring to certain overseas trading platforms or personal wallets, users may be required to prove that the account belongs to them and explain the purpose of the transaction and the source of funds. If the information is insufficient, the transfer may be delayed or refused.Transactions reaching 10 million Korean won or more will also be included in the suspicious transaction monitoring system established by the exchanges, and the relevant regulations will be implemented six months after their announcement.

Korean BC Card announced that it has completed the "Overseas Digital Asset Wallet - Connection of Korean Local Bank Card Payment Infrastructure" pilot test with Coinbase and Wavebridge.The test verified that foreign tourists can directly use USDC in their wallets to make payments at Korean BC QR merchants, achieving a full process linkage from stablecoin payment to Korean won settlement.

According to Gate market data, the South Korean KOSPI index rose 3.38% in early trading, Samsung Electronics rose 4%, and SK Hynix rose 5%.

According to Cointelegraph, Mauro Eldritch, the founder of cybersecurity company BCA LTD, and Heiner García, a network threat intelligence analyst at Telefónica Tech, jointly established a fake cryptocurrency startup "Ballena Azul," successfully luring suspected North Korean IT workers to work in a controlled virtual desktop environment for up to five weeks while monitoring their behavior throughout.Investigations show that the external servers used by the workers are linked to North Korean cyber operations that previously distributed malware such as InvisibleFerret, BeaverTail, and OtterCookie; the workers also heavily relied on ChatGPT for programming assistance and Google Gemini to forge identity documents. Researchers pointed out that North Korean IT workers obtained remote jobs by faking U.S. identities, with their earnings ultimately flowing into Pyongyang's weapons of mass destruction programs. According to the U.S. Treasury Department, such programs are expected to generate nearly $800 million for North Korea in 2024.

According to Gate market data, the Nikkei 225 index closed up 553.84 points on August 12, an increase of 0.83%, reporting at 67,524.06 points.The South Korean KOSPI index also closed up 233.51 points on the same day, an increase of 3.68%, reporting at 6,579.04 points.Chip stocks surged significantly, with Samsung Electronics rising 6.68% and SK Hynix rising 5.54%.

According to a report by South Korea's Asia Economy, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund Temasek has decided to invest in the South Korean stock market for the first time, having selected Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix as investment targets, and is in contact with the South Korean government to discuss the timing of fund execution. Temasek manages assets of approximately 518 billion Singapore dollars (about 572 trillion Korean won), and this investment will be managed internally rather than through external asset management.Temasek believes that the storage semiconductor sector in the AI value chain is undervalued by the market. Recently, it has been increasing its investments in AI-related fields and already holds shares in semiconductor giants such as Nvidia, TSMC, and ASML, and is also one of the major institutional investors in OpenAI and Anthropic. Temasek plans to increase the proportion of AI-related investments from the current 6% to a maximum of 15% over the next five years. If executed smoothly, this will be Temasek's first direct entry into the South Korean stock market.